1992-1999Series I L27 (1992-1994 SE,SLE, SSE) & Series II L36 (1995-1999 SE, SSE, SLE) and
common problems for the Series I and II L67 (all supercharged models 92-99) Including Olds 88's, Olds LSS's and Buick Lesabres
Please use General Chat for non-mechanical issues, and Performance and Brainstorming for improvements.

alright, I was asked to replace the water pump on a 1996 SSE bonneville. I have been reading about the pump replacement and know about swinging the power steering pump out of the way. What else should i keep in mind when doing this?

things i had in mind: what to do with belt? just loosen it or just remove the pump while its on? i'm assuming i will have to refill the system after doing this. i have read conflicting reports of whether or not i will need to jack up the motor and remove mounts. so that would be really helpful.

also any diagrams/ pics of the engine bay would be great, as the car is 5 hours away and i will just be doing it when i visit their house.

If it were me, I would take the belt of the pulleys to remove tension, though it doesn't have to come completely off, obviously. Remember to remove the 4 bolts from the pulley, before you remove the belt.

Other than that it'* a pretty straightforward task. I prefer to remove the front pass. tire for easier access, though some have said it'* not necessary.

You will want to take off the PS pump, by turning the PS pulley to access the two bolts holding it on.

Not sure about motor mounts, I know I had to do that when I changed my SSEi'* pump, but no idea if it'* different from L67 to L36.

Regardless...

After you remove the PS pump as stated above, just make sure you set it down so it'* not putting any stress on the hoses that are attached to it.

For the water pump itself... I was told it was a dry install gasket kind of thing. Which is probably true for most. But it was my first time doing this, and the pump ended up with a bad leak after I was done. So I had to do it all over again. The second time around I put on some RTV with the gasket, and it hasn't leaked since. Granted, the leaking was probably just due to me being a n00b but still, the RTV definitely didn't hurt. Especially if you end up having to remove the motor mount, you WON'T want to have to do it again